For District 11 wrestling, a promising look for next season

Nazareth's Sammy Sasso reached the 120-pound championship bout in his first state tournament, a major achievement for any freshman. There he met another young prodigy, Franklin Regional's Spencer Lee, a sophomore with two state titles.

After being pinned by Lee on Saturday night, Sasso acknowledged that his silver medal deserved to be celebrated. But not for too long.

"I've just got to come back next year, get stronger and win gold," he said.

Sasso is part of the rising contingent of District 11's underclassmen wrestlers who made an impression at last weekend's PIAA 3A championships. Of the 17 District 11 wrestlers who won medals, three gold, 14 will return next season.

That's a major step for a district that had fallen off its gold-medal pace of late. Last year, District 11 did not win a Class 3A gold medal for the first time since the PIAA went to two classifications in 1974.

Now, with their young talent, the district's wrestlers want to make some gains on District 7.

"I'll be the first to say it: Right now, District 7 and District 3 may be a little ahead of us," said Bethlehem Catholic coach Jeff Karam, whose team crowned two state champs in Class 3A. "But it also seems like us and Parkland and Liberty and Nazareth and Easton, we're young teams. And we have a lot of guys coming back. I really think it looks good for the future throughout the whole district."

District 7, which has more than double the number of 3A schools as District 11, has dominated Class 3A wrestling recently. District 7 teams have won five consecutive team state titles (and four at the duals tournament) while crowding the top of the medal stand.

Over the past four years, District 7 wrestlers have won 28 gold medals. District 11 has won seven.

On Saturday night, District 7 wrestlers won nine gold medals in 14 weight classes. Franklin Regional tied a tournament record with four state champs and shattered the team-points record, formerly held by Northampton.

But District 11 made strides. Bethlehem Catholic, which returned to Class 3A this season, claimed two state titles from Luke Karam (126) and Andrew Dunn (285). Further, Nazareth's Tyson Klump won gold at 106.

Dunn is the only senior of the three. Parkland's Omar Haddad (third at 220) and Southern Lehigh's Matt Mirth (seventh at 170) were the only other seniors to medal.

Otherwise, the talent is young and dotted throughout the district. Easton's two medalists, Evan Fidelibus and Jimmy Saylor, will return for their senior years. All four of Nazareth's state qualifiers return.

Liberty returns three of its four qualifiers, including fifth-place medalist Andrew Gunning (220). Northampton's Dan Moran, a two-time medalist, will be a junior next year. Then, of course, there's Bethlehem Catholic, which returns four of its five state medalists and 12 starters

"District 11 kind of rode that wave for a while [in the early 2000s], but that's never really permanent," Nazareth coach Dave Crowell said. "And it shouldn't be. Other people make improvements, too. But there's some very good talent in our younger guys, and I think the future for District 11 is very good."

Among the keys, as Sasso said, is getting stronger. The freshman was struck by how strong Lee was in their bout, which ended with a second-period pin.

Many programs continued weight-training programs through the postseason. Liberty's Luke Werner credited that lifting for his success in qualifying for states.

Several coaches said the talent is there for a major state-medal run in 2016. It's just a matter of harnessing it.

"I think District 11 could have an unbelievable year," Jeff Karam said. "We're right there. We're ready to challenge."

Labriola's rollercoaster day

By Saturday night, Bethlehem Catholic sophomore Mike Labriola was smiling again, having won a bronze medal at 152 pounds. His thick skin had served him well.

"Today's a pretty good day," he said. "Well, it was a rocky day, actually."

Few wrestlers had more emotional swings Saturday than Labriola. In his morning semifinal against Franklin Regional's Josh Maruca, Labriola appeared to hit the winning takedown in overtime. In fact, the takedown was awarded before being waved off following an officials' conference.

Maruca later reversed Labriola, turning what briefly was a 3-1 defeat into a 3-1 victory. Maruca headed to the final, Labriola to a corner of the Giant Center to be alone.

"I went back into the tunnel and thought about what happened," he said. "Coach [Nick] Lafevre talked to me and told me I had to bounce back. I didn't want to end the year in sixth place."

Labriola did just that, winning his next two bouts to place third. Of course, both had to go to overtime as well.

First, Labriola scored a 6-4 decision over Scranton's Kazim Bakhriyev, to whom he had lost in the Northeast regional final. Then, Labriola defeated Punxsutawney's Kaleb Young 5-3 in the third-place bout.

That ended with another officials' discussion regarding a reversal Labriola had scored in the ultimate tiebreaker. This time, the call was upheld.

"Next year, I want to be first on the podium," Labriola said. "That's the main thing."

RETURNING MEDALISTS

Of the 17 wrestlers who won medals at the PIAA championships, 14 will return for the 2015-16 season. That's a big improvement over this past season, which had five returning medalists. The list: